Congratulations to Dr. Joe Walther for becoming an NCA Distinguished Scholar. As seen on the NCA website, "The NCA Distinguished Scholar Award recognizes and rewards a lifetime of scholarly achievement in the study of communication. The winners received their awards during NCA’s 103rd Annual Convention held November 16-19 in Dallas, Texas."
The NCA website goes on to state, "Dr. Joseph B. Walther pioneered the field of the social dynamics of computer-mediated communication. Prior to his work, researchers in other disciplines focused on static channel effects on interpersonal and group processes. He articulated dynamic, communication-based explanations and predictions for how users develop impressions and interpersonal relations through extended message exchanges via the Internet. Dr. Walther’s work laid the foundation for the contemporary study of social media and social interaction online. With a more than 25-year distinguished career, he has become known as an important theorist, having articulated no fewer than four original theories. These include social information processing theory, the hyperpersonal model, warranting theory (with Parks), and the efficiency framework of mediated communication (with Watt & Nowak). The hallmark of Dr. Walther’s work throughout his career is the combination of novel theoretical ideas and innovative mainstream empirical research methods applied to the study of computer-mediated communication. The influence of his prodigious research is international. Within the Communication discipline, he was the first to receive NCA’s Woolbert Research Award on two separate occasions, each one marking an article published 10+ years prior that had stood the test of time and reconceptualized communication phenomena. In addition to receiving numerous awards from several NCA and ICA divisions, Dr. Walther was a Fulbright senior scholar in 2013, holds fellowships at universities in Germany and the Netherlands, and is the Wee Kim Wee Professor in Communication Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He has provided keynote addresses in Europe, the United States, the Middle East, and Asia, and has developed innovative courses involving online collaborations among students from several countries. He in an ambassador of the field among countries and disciplines the world over. The corpus of Dr. Walther’s work has provided the intellectual space for an enormous variety of researchers to explore what social, technological, and behavioral factors influence the way we relate online, in a variety of settings, applications, and populations. It does so by exemplifying theoretically driven, imaginative, rigorous, solidly communication-focused research."
For more information about NCA Distinguished Scholars, visit this webpage:
https://www.natcom.org/nca-inside-out/announcing-2017-nca-distinguished…